


What if Someone Vicious Had Entered: Part V

by S A G (setgree)



Series: What if Someone Vicious Had Entered? [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:47:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25886062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/setgree/pseuds/S%20A%20G
Summary: This is Part V of "What if Someone Vicious had Entered?"It takes place 39 years after the events of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."
Series: What if Someone Vicious Had Entered? [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1878430





	What if Someone Vicious Had Entered: Part V

**Part V: Leaving**

_"He is plotting to become a Power. He has a mind of metal and wheels"_

_\- Lord of the Rings_

**Chapter 19**

**Neville**

On July 18th of 2037, at 4:47 a.m., Neville Abbott-Longbottom was crouched and veiled in the warded corner of his bedroom with his hands on his weapons. Every bedroom of Neville’s since high school had had such a corner. Neville waited to see whether the threat was real or the after-image of a dream. After fifteen minutes or so, he dissolved the veil and returned to bed. Hannah stirred and looked at him.

“Sweetie. She said she was going to be here on Saturday."

“I know. I know."

“She couldn’t get in here anyway."

“Hannah. If she wanted in, she’d be in."

Hannah evidently didn’t have anything to say to that. She went back to sleep. Neville lay in bed for perhaps half an hour more, and then decided to begin preparing for the breakfast crowd. The Leaky Cauldron opened at 8. Albus Potter was scheduled to get in at 6:30.

A week earlier, a nattily dressed man had entered, sat down at a corner table by himself, ordered a beer and a pretzel, and told a waiter that he’d like to speak to Neville. When Neville had come to greet him, the man had flashed him a small coin with an unmistakable engraving.

“A mutual acquaintance would like to speak to you," the man said. “She’d like to arrange a meeting. She says you can set the time and place and can either tell me or mark the coin."

“…You can’t be serious."

“I quite am. I could produce a number of proofs to that effect. But none will be better than looking at this coin’s counterpart. You know full well that no one besides her could use it as a signal. I assume you’ve kept it?"

“Yes. I have it."

“Good. Then what shall I tell her?"

“I …I need to think about it."

“Of course."

The man glanced around.

“This is a good place you have, Neville. And I’ve heard good things about your work at Hogwarts. I think she’ll be happy to hear that you’re doing well."

The man put some money down on the table and left. Neville got up and went about his day and didn’t say anything. At the end of his shift, he checked the Protean coins in his jewel box. The ones linking him to Ginny, Hermione, Luna and Cho were unchanged. They hadn’t updated in years. The one Sarah Lahiri had given him 39 years ago, after she’d come within striking distance of breaking his mind, had a brief note in tiny print.

_Neville. My dear friend. I would like to meet. I have an offer to make you. A chance to undo some of the damage of our song, my loved one. I will meet you wherever you’d like._

Neville sat down in a chair and thought about his options. He hadn’t told anyone about what the man had said. He knew he should tell Hannah at some point. But she wasn’t the person who could help him most immediately. Neville picked up the coin linking him to Cho Chang and enchanted it to say:

_First most dangerous love has gotten in touch. Need advice._

Half an hour later, his phone rang.

“Neville, it’s Albus. Cho can’t talk right now. She told me to call you and that it’s important. What’s up?"

“I…she can’t talk?"

“No, Neville. I’m sorry."

“Is she ok?"

“Yes. She’s fine. She’s on mission. Is it something you can tell me?"

“Someone, someone very important from my past has unveiled. Someone I thought dead. She wants to meet. Do you –"

“Who have you told about this?"

“No one. Just Cho. I’ll tell Hannah when I see her."

“Oh God. Can you meet me at your place on Saturday at 6:30 a.m. your time?"

“Yeah."

“I’ll be there. Room is secure to eavesdropping spells right?"

“To the best of my abilities, yes."

“Ok. I’ll bring a few people. For the love of God Neville, _tell no one else,_ and only tell Hannah if you think she truly must know."

Albus hung up the phone. Neville told Hannah that night. No one else. And on Saturday morning, at 6:29, Neville was sitting at his most warded table when Albus Potter, Madeleine Chang-Martin, and Nate Miller walked in. Nate, looking hale and moving without haste, sat down at Neville’s table while Madeleine and Albus walked around the room, muttering detection spells. All three were visibly armed and armored.

“It’s good to see you again," Nate said.

Madeleine and Albus finished their inspections and sat down, at which point Neville reached into a groove on the table’s side and activated further wards he’d had built in. Nate looked expectantly at Albus.

“Ok. So Sarah Lahiri got in touch. How confident are you that it’s really her?"

“The…the enchantments we put on those coins were formidable. Sarah came up with them, something to make it impossible for anyone to alter them or use them except us, and that they’d become normal coins if either of us died. So I suppose someone could have undone all that. But she said something specifically that I don’t think anyone but her, Jess, Lev, Seamus or Ginny would have known to say."

“So I guess she’s not dead, huh?" Madeleine asked.

Nate shook his head at that.

“No one ever really believed it anyway, at least among folks I know. No one ever saw the body. It was a convenient fiction. Coming out in the open again is a big risk. That’s what I’d like to know. So, Neville, why do _you_ think she wants to meet? What’s important enough to put the peace at hazard?"

“I have some guesses. How much do you …how much do you know about our relationship? About what she gave us all that year?"

“My mother essentially never speaks of it," Madeleine said. “She talks a lot about the training she got with Nate’s group before uni, and one time she told a person from the Ministry to shut his fucking mouth when he started blabbering on about the Battle of Hogwarts, told him that he didn’t know what he was talking about. Other than that, nothing."

“Same here," Albus said. “My dad doesn’t know much about it first-hand. And you know my mom, what, four decades later, she has major flashbacks, they hit her like seizures. Dad’s good at dealing with it but mom never talks about it. For most of my life I’ve heard the British official history version. The one where Sarah ends up a war criminal. And Cho advised that I not dig deeper until I needed to. Which I guess is now."

“Your poor mother," Neville said. “After what Voldermort did to her when she was a kid, and then Sarah did something, something very particularly harmful to her when we were at Hogwarts. We tried our best to help her but I guess it wasn’t enough."

“Yes," Nate said. “It was. Ginny survived and thrived and is happy, which, under the circumstances, is quite the feat. But to your question Neville. The truth is, even I know little about what transpired that year. We sent our children away to protect Harry Potter and his friends. And after everything, those of us who are still around have no idea whether we made the right choice. But I’ve never had the chance to hear it from someone who was there, Neville. She was very dear to me at one point. I would appreciate the chance."

“All right," Neville said.

Hannah was standing at the bar. Neville gestured for her to come over. She took a seat next to him and put her hand on his.

“I’ll tell it."

**Chapter 20**

“I think I should start in 96 when Bellatrix got busted out of Azkaban. It was winter and we had been training with Harry, and Cho, and some other key folks, because the ministry sent this hack, Umbridge, to be our Defense Professor. And she pissed Harry off so badly that we found the Room of Requirement, organized lessons, and eventually went head to head with the Death Eaters at the Ministry in June of 97. We were six kids with minimal experience and we went against like 12 death eaters, and we got backup from the Order of the Phoenix soon enough, but still. It didn’t click then. It didn’t click for a lot of years actually, two things about that. The first was that the Death Eaters were pathetic. Absolutely not an army. Just some bored gentry and their thugs. When Dumbledore came he subdued ten of them in about a minute."

“The second was that a little bit of training went a long way. But we stopped then. We didn’t keep up the lessons the next year, or that summer or anything. I’ve had so many times to kick myself for that. But we were kids, and we believed, you know, in the government."

“And we were just completely wrong. Voldermort was a major league wizard, probably the most powerful on Earth at his peak, but he had a total of maybe a few hundred followers and only about thirty in the inner circle, and Bellatrix and Rodolphus were nothing to sneeze at, but for Pete's sake, Albus, your grandmother, a woman with zero serious combat training, killed Bellatrix in a duel of all things. And it’s all very romantic and everything to tell the story of Molly Weasley’s great moment but Cho was waiting on the sidelines with the heavy artillery. Bellatrix was never making it out of Hogwarts alive. She was an idiot to challenge us on home territory. But this group of losers knocked out the Ministry, took over Hogwarts, and I guess we were all just hoping Harry Potter would save us. Because we weren’t prepping at all, no guerilla warfare, nothing. The Order of the Phoenix …they lost Dumbledore and Snape and they just fell apart."

“I was, I guess I resisted in my own way. When the Death Eaters took over Hogwarts, we had this horrible brother-sister pair, the Carrows, and I tried to stand up to them. Harry had really inspired me back when he talked back to Umbridge. And I was trying to do the same. But then we met these three American kids. Jess was in Gryffindor and Sarah was in Ravenclaw so I guess I thought they were all right, but their buddy Lev was in Slytherin, and that kid was _mean_. Downright cruel to others. Early on, I remember, this Slytherin Crabbe and this Ravenclaw Terry Boot were having, uh, words in the hallway and people started lining up around the sides and it looked like it was going to be a brawl, but I guess we were in Lev’s way because he walked up and grabbed Terry by the collar of his robes and threw him into a wall, and said something like, don’t cause bottlenecks you idiots, and kept walking, and Sarah and Jess just followed saying nothing. And you gotta remember that Lev’s not big, he’s like average height, and Sarah’s tiny, about 5 nothing and Jess is tall for a girl and she’s got a solid build but I was quite a bit bigger than all three, and Lev picked Terry up like he weighed nothing and threw him probably 15 feet. So we gave them a lot of distance, and they hardly seemed to notice the rest of us, and they barely even talked to us a lot of days."

“But then me and Ginny got in a tight spot with the Carrows. They caught us putting up graffiti, that was, you know, that was what we were into back then, and it looked really bad for a moment. But then these three Americans appear out of nowhere, put a bunch of Slytherin students to sleep and KO the Carrows. And only then did Ginny finally tell me that she had known they were allies because they had killed like 10 Death Eaters in an effort to protect Harry over the summer. And then Sarah offered to start training us, so we wouldn’t be so easy to back into a corner, and we said yes, and then I guess that was the real start of Dumbledore’s Army part II, although we soon started calling it the Hogwarts defense team, and then eventually Sarah’s army."

“I had known, on some level, that we were just skimming the surface of magic at school. Fun fact, I discovered I wasn’t a squib when my grandfather “accidentally” dropped me out of a third story window and I bounced. It took me probably 20 years to realize what it implied. That as a small child, before I’d had any training, and not holding a wand, I’d completely changed some underlying feature of reality for a brief moment. I’d changed the composition of my body, or the laws of gravity, to do the impossible. And there we were at school, learning small-impact spells by rote. Now, it seems clear that our teachers, the entire British government, wanted us to learn a very specific, mostly non-lethal set of magical tricks, and nothing else.”

“The Americans hadn’t grown up like that. For us, it was cool that you could enchant a car to fly, like your grandpa did Albus. We didn’t think, hey, if you can create a car that can fly, maybe you can make a gun that will _never miss_ , with bullets that eat away at your body like acid. The three of them had an armory worth of tricks like that. Your whole crew did, Nate. So when we had that first lesson with them, it was about as eye-opening for me as when I discovered that I had magic in the first place. They were just optimized for winning fights. Sarah called it "removing your adversary’s capacity for reprisal." They didn’t need wands, and for the most part they didn’t really need magic. If it came to it, a knife in the back was a perfectly fine solution for them. Magic only helped drive the knife in harder, helped the person holding it move faster. That’s going to be old hat to you two because you trained with Cho. But it was a revelation to me."

“So we trained with them. Us two at first, and then eventually we let Seamus Finnegan in on it. And we started relaying the things they taught us to a larger group, allies and friends. Mostly the three good houses but a few Slytherins as well who had lost people to Voldermort. And it was just an entirely different philosophy. I was never going to be a killer, they saw that, and they trained me to be a strategic thinker, someone who could protect others. But Ginny, they trained to kill. A lot of it was pretty basic stuff. Jess got us lifting weights, practicing hand-to-hand stuff, eating differently. Lev taught us about hiding and striking at the most opportune moment. And Sarah was the big-picture person, taught us about setting the situation up so that the odds were in your favor. I talked to my grandma and your mom talked to her parents and we agreed to go back with the Americans over winter break and train with Nate’s crew. And the adults had more experience, more precision, taught us more about weapons."

“We learned a couple of important things then. We watched the three kids fight a group of ten adults to a standstill, and Jess said it was, because of what they’d been through with the, uh, the soul-giving process by which they’d revived her, they probably had the best telepathy among any combat specialists in the world. The quickest and least noisy. They were pulling off these impossibly complex coordinated maneuvers on the fly. Like a single organism. So I guess it dawned on me that these kids who looked like our peers we were probably also three of the most powerful wizards on Earth."

Nate nodded at that.

“You were right, Neville. By that winter they were the best small team by a long shot. The most efficient and single-minded. It wasn’t a raw firepower thing. Jess had a bigger engine than most but Lev and Sarah were pretty typical. And it didn’t carry over individually. We broke them up and suddenly Lev and Jess were mortal again. Back to being our students. But Sarah had leaped ahead of them, of all of us, and specifically when working with Jess and Lev as a team, she could transfer the benefit to her friends. Her subordinates really. She was moving in ways we didn’t understand."

Nate paused.

“In retrospect, we didn’t want to understand. I should have known. I could have gotten her off the path."

There was a moment of silence.

“I’m sorry Neville," Nate said. “Please continue."

“Ok. Well the second thing we learned is more minor, just that Cho was training full-time with your crew, Nate. But that really became important later."

“So we went back to school in January. And something was different. For a while they wouldn’t talk to me about it. But Lev and Jess were gone from school a lot and Sarah was quieter. More somber. Eventually she told me about them two and Jordan Loew, how they were going out and assassinating Death Eaters, and how worried she was that they’d never come back some night, and after a month or so we all talked about it. The two of them were so, calm about the whole thing. Unpleasantly serene. Lev said something like, he was more at peace with the world than he had been since Darren died, now that he felt like he was doing something."

“So Sarah and I started getting closer. For a little while, we were a couple. Around then we merged the two training groups. People weren’t super surprised to hear that the Americans were behind our change in methods, the move to coordinated combat games rather than individual spell practice. I mean they weren’t dumb. For the most part the Americans played cool but people had seen how easily Lev had handled Terry. And one time in Potions a dangerous gas got leaked and before Slughorn could do anything the three of them cleared everyone out of the way and contained it in a way that just screamed “military training.” Folks didn’t trust them at first but we had this tournament to shake out who had what skills and they dominated. Everybody wanted to fight the Death Eaters and they showed real ability there, so that was about it. We worked together a lot and after a little while they were respected, liked, at the center of things. Plus Jess wrecked this Slytherin punk in a fight one time.”

“Something else, too about them. When we got angry, and it was pretty easy to get riled up in the middle of the games, they cooled down. They never lashed out. Never panicked or lost control. People respected that. And that was something we learned from them too. Like, deliberately, we set up games to test how well we could keep focused on the mission when someone was messing with your emotions or trying to upset you."

“And, that was the end for Sarah and me. It was late Feburary. It was the small group, them three and me and Seamus and Ginny. We met like that every so often to try out new things. And Lev suggested that we start throwing around our memories as weapons. I had no idea how to do it at the time but they could invade your mind and supplant your reality with some fiction, or, worse yet, something from their memories. So it was me and Ginny versus Sarah and Seamus, just playing tag, while Jess and Lev stood on the sidelines and bombarded us with these terrible experiences. You’d be looking for someone in the middle of a mess of broken closets and tables and then suddenly you’re a fifteen year old girl watching her mom die, and you had to keep your mental defenses up to distinguish fact from memory. It was goddamn awful."

“But Lev was too good at it. His memories or visions or whatever were especially vivid and unpleasant, and I’ll never know but I think he deliberately hit Sarah harder. Because the next thing I know, I’m about to tag her, I think, when we get hit with this wave of nausea and, something unpleasant with him and an American policeman tied to a chair that I’d prefer to think he made up, and Sarah just snapped. Steps out of where she was hiding, breaks the veil, puts her hands up, and the room started to shake, like we were in an earthquake. And she said. I remember it very clearly. She said: “How dare you! How fucking dare you! _Feel what I felt you fucking rat!”_ "

“And right then from my point of view the world ended. I’ve struggled for a long time with how to describe it. The first thing that hit me was darkness, total inability to perceive. And then pain, like, excruciating pain everywhere, and nausea. And then memories and images and ghosts started flooding in, and my mental defenses just collapsed. Too much at once. A bunch of Sarah’s bad memories on top of each other, her slicing some Death Eater in half with her coil and her delicate hand around a woman’s neck on the ground in a forest, her watching Lev fall apart at a funeral. And then some of _my_ bad memories on top of it, learning Bellatrix had gotten loose, things I didn’t even know I remembered. I was a baby in my grandma’s arms when Moody told her that my parents had been tortured to insanity but apparently the memory was still there and it played on top of everything else. Then something evil from the school itself is how I would call it. A ton of memories of students hurting each other with magic and without. And something darker and bigger too. Like, stars dying out. Void."

“But I could hardly have told you any of that when I was experiencing this. It was just a total wash of pain and horror and loss of self. No idea how long it lasted. And then it was over. I snapped back to reality and the first thing I see is Sarah clutching her leg. Bleeding. I looked at what she was looking at and Lev had shot her, had the pistol in his hand, and he was starting to throw up. Jess walked over to a mirror and started punching it, Seamus was rocking back and forth on the ground."

“And Ginny. She was silent for a bit. And then she started screaming. Top of her lungs, no sense, no words, like an animal, and she just started running. She ran right into a downed cabinet and tripped right over it and hit the floor hard and just got up and kept running. I could hardly see straight and my head was burning but Ginny ran by me and I just tackled her and held her down and told her that I loved her and that it would be ok and eventually she calmed down. Lev and Jess and Seamus joined us in a heap on the floor and everyone started trying to make sense of it and Sarah just sits down next to us and apologizes over and over. Said she would die if she could to undo it."

“The next few days were hardly any better. The memories kept lingering. Overpowering. I would be walking to class and suddenly, sense of self dissolved, back to a mix of my own worst memories and other people’s. And when they came back all I could consciously think of was ways to kill myself, what would be fastest given where I was. We have no idea. No idea how Sarah did it. I’ve looked it up and found nothing. Nothing to describe a spell that lasted that long and had those effects. It was something she made up. Something she hadn’t been planning to use until she lost control."

“We kept going to training. But I couldn’t see her anymore. I could hardly talk to her. I knew it was an accident. It was just too awful to make sense of."

“Then the Death Eaters went after my grandma. She went on the lam. I got word from McGonagall and I moved into the room full time. And that’s about when your mother showed up, Madeleine. We hadn’t seen her since winter break and she came in, uh, looking pretty different. Short hair. Nose looked like it had been broken and set a few times. And with a trunk full of weapons she could do some pretty horrifying things with. Bunch of Gryffindors moved into the room with me then. We were getting food from Aberforth Dumbledore at first but eventually Seamus cut a deal directly with the House Elves and we started getting our meals up there. Albus, your mom left after a close run-in with her family and the Death Eaters, and we spent about a month training full time. Cho was a natural strategist even then, she took over a toon, and eventually when we started running school defense drills, it became clear that she was Sarah’s second, not Jess or Lev. Sarah and she were just really compatible thinkers. They spent a lot of time together, planning."

“And then your dad returned, Albus, and Cho and Sarah set things into motion. We all went down to the Great Hall. And then things got kind of confusing for me. Voldermort talked to us, and then some American, turned out to be Putnam but I didn’t know at the time. Didn’t know Jordan Loew by sight but he heard the voice and summoned up his wife and two of the vamp elders. Jess summoned some demon and gave it something and then she and Lev joned Liz and Jordan. And Jordan announced to the hall that they were going to kill Jonathan Putnam and anyone was welcome to come with them."

And Sarah. She started losing it. Looking at her friends standing next to this man like she couldn’t believe it. I don’t think she knew that Putnam was still alive, and Jess and Lev had kept it from her. I was by her side. The air around her got weird and I took a few steps back and started warding. She was begging her friends to stay. And Jess just shook her head no. And the two of them walked up to her and pulled her in close and …they recited the poem I think you know. The one Jess had said she’d said at Darren’s and her mom’s funeral. The song we’ll sing over their bones, loved one."

Nate shuddered.

“Not a poem, Neville," he said. “A ritual. Signaling self-sacrifice. Best not to repeat it."

“I wold never," Neville said. “Anyway. As they were about to leave, Sarah looked at Jordan and said, so softly I’m not sure anyone but me heard it, “This is your fault.” And this next part might not make sense if you’ve never been around someone who tried to bend time. But nothing happened. And then it had already happened. I didn’t see anything. But it was in my memory. It hurt. It was a bad spell. Something humans shouldn’t do. McGonagall and Kingsley and I all reeled back and my vision blacked out for a few seconds. And when I came to Sarah was on the ground and Liz was standing over her with this crazy big sword at Sarah’s neck, the Elders arrayed behind her in a V. Sarah put her hands up in surrender and just cried.”

“At that point there was nothing else to do. The three humans and the three vampires left in a hurry, and Liz launched an attack on the Death Eaters like nothing I’d seen at that point, like a little electric fireball bomb that she pulled out of nowhere, and after that they were gone, and Sarah just stood there shell-shocked."

“Before we could reconvene, two Giants smashed straight through the main door and started going right for the smallest people in the room. Few dozen of the giant spiders right behind them and then in the doorway, contingent of gunmen, a dozen people, a couple wizards casting protective spells. Giants screamed, gunshots rang out, and everybody panicked. Well not everybody. When Sarah checked out to deal with her friends, Cho and I had put our toons behind tables we’d previously reinforced. My toon and I were covering the east end of the hall. But we hadn’t made a plan for the adults and they let us down real bad. Kingsley, Minerva, Lupin: when the giants came in, they ran for the exits. They blocked everyone’s line of fire. So then the challenge was getting everyone clear so we could deal with the attack without undue casualties. Cho sent out a plan in zero time, had me and my toon take on the spiders and the Giants while she and hers cleared civilians and tried to stymie the gunmen at the source."

“But Sarah wasn’t having any of that. She took one look at the Giants and just ran straight at them. At the time the Americans were working with these claws on their hands. Dennis Creevey was in her way and she shoved him hard and when he went down he was bleeding bad. I saw that and got out from behind our table to run after her and clear the path. I moved the Weasleys out of the way. And when Sarah got to the first Giant she jumped up to eye level with it and sunk her claws into its face. And there were a million threats in the room but she toppled the thing down and pounded his face into mush long after he died. I took the other one out as he tried to pry Sarah off his companion."

“By that point, Cho had gotten everyone behind tables and drawn all the fire to her toon. Ernie provided a big distraction, just lots of pure fire right at them and Cho appeared floating above the wizards and took them down. Just like the Americans. All efficiency. She got behind them and cut their necks. After that the gunmen were defenseless, Cho moved back to behind the tables and everyone opened fire. Sarah had disappeared. When the smoke cleared there were a bunch of dead muggles in the door and just utter fucking, shock from everyone we hadn’t trained with. We had already lost six of the people who didn’t move fast enough. Sarah appeared by the doors and waved them shut."

“She started shouting at us. It was hard to make any words out, the castle was shaking, but she seemed to think that we had reacted badly. That it was our fault. She singled out Arthur and Molly in particular for panicking and for a moment looked like she was going to attack them. Cho and I jumped up and got in between Sarah and the Weasleys. And then some kind of alarm went off. It was Jess’s voice. It said like, “ASTRONOMY TOWER BREACHED. ASTRONOMY TOWER BREACHED.” And Sarah turned around and flew over to the stairways leading to the Astronomy Tower.”

“We had a moment to discuss, and Cho took over. She told me to go keep an eye on Sarah, and she took command of my toon. I went upstairs, followed the noise, and found a firefight between Ginny, Parvati’s toon, George Weasley and Nymphadora Tonks and a bunch of Death Eaters, again backed up by riflemen. They were holding their own, no one was making any progress or landing any shots, and I was figuring out how to intervene, when one of the Death Eaters started screaming in just complete agony."

“Sarah’s army had trained a lot that year, and one thing we had picked up was the ability to see past each other’s veils. It had something to do with training in the school specifically. So I opened up, like a third sight that only worked with people we had trained with. And there was Sarah, floating upside down above the Death Eater, with her hands on the woman’s head. Everybody stopped firing for a moment and then Sarah ripped the woman’s head off and tossed it at the other Death Eaters. Before anybody could do anything, she floated up and got her coil around another Death Eater’s neck and sliced straight through it."

“The Death Eaters and their gunmen just panicked at that. For all they knew they’d awoken some gruesome protector spirit of the school itself. They started firing in all directions, discipline gone. It was the advantage we needed. Parvati’s team kept cool, and she put hers into shielded firing teams and pushed the Death Eaters back. Sarah dropped behind the Death Eaters and set two people in the rear line on fire. They stopped retreating then, and at that point we had them in a total vise. You know what I said earlier about the differences between an army and the Death Eaters. They had mercenaries with them but when we surveyed the hallway after the smoke had cleared there were eight of them dead and zero casualties on our side."

“We huddled, tried to figure out our next step. Parvati and I were tracking Sarah, clutched up on a lighting fixture by the ceiling like a lemur. And then Sarah just went nuts firing at something we couldn’t see. Fire and ice and some kind of black electricity I had never seen. Parvati and I got everyone beneath a pretty strong shield and beat a retreat back around a corner."

“And then it all stopped and Sarah screamed. We peered around and she was standing in the middle of the hallway, veil gone, clutching at her face. She turned around wildly. Something had gouged her eyes out. She was babbling. We heard a deep, deeply alien voice. I remember the words well. We put our memories into a pensieve after to make sure we got it exactly right."

““Little Time-Mage," it said. “You are too reliant on your sight. Focus your mind."”

“Sarah oriented on something I couldn’t see, and stopped making any noise. And she started drawing power in. And the next part of this I won’t be able to explain well. But for a fraction of a second, I felt like I saw the future. I knew exactly what Sarah was going to do and what I needed to do. She was going to do the memory attack again. And I needed to protect my friends from her. Which was exactly what Cho had asked of me."

“So in the few seconds I had, I sent a vision out to everyone instructing them to get close and touch someone dear to them and focus on the people they loved and try their best to put a mental shield up and that Sarah was about to do something that might break our minds. Ginny’s eyes got wide and she shouted that she loved us and she herded everyone in between us and we put a shield together."

“And then it happened again. Same attack. Being ready for it made all the difference, for me anyway. We had practiced against more minor versions of the same spell a lot. Everyone we had trained with had different ways of visualizing their own ego, the strength of their own minds. My vision was my grandmother and I sitting in the entrance of my childhood home. And this time when Sarah sent out all the evil things in her mind and in the school to try to break me down I perceived them as unwelcome guests, ghosts, possibilities. And I held them off. Despair at the threshold like a wolf at the door but I kept on."

“The hallway went nuts. Things started flying around. Dirt and furniture and wind, the bodies of the Death Eaters and things that didn’t seem real. I don’t know if she had conjured a maelstrom the last time or not."

“Everyone we had trained with was ready, to some extent. But some, hard to quantify period of time later I heard another spell go off, and opened my eyes. Tonks was falling. She hadn’t trained with us. She wasn’t ready. She had put a wand against her head and fired."

“I turned to Sarah and shouted at her to stop, and tried to make my way to her, tried to disrupt to her by pushing her or shooting her if I needed to like Lev had done. But something else got to her first. I saw a brief glimpse of something that looked metallic and reptilian, and huge. It smashed right into Sarah and carried her through a wall. Took a huge chunk of the building out with it and then Sarah was gone. But on its way out something that felt a lot like a tail hit me in the face and knocked me into a wall, and I passed out."

“I woke up a few hours later with a terrible headache in the Great Hall, behind an overturned table surrounded by Cho and her toon, all at full alert. Cho explained that Parvati’s group had taken me down here along with all the other wounded and dead, and that Cho’s group had to that point successfully defended the main hall. I looked around and saw a pile of bodies, humans, giants, spiders and trolls, by the door, a solid blockade, and a bunch of ours laid out along the tables. Tonks. Fred Weasley. Colin Creevey. People you wouldn’t know, but my friends."

“I asked Cho what had happened to Sarah. She said she had no idea and that Parvati’s explanations hadn’t made any sense. All they knew was that Sarah had launched an attack that made Tonks kill herself and then that something had taken her out and ripped a part of the castle apart."

“Voldermort called a truce not long thereafter. Asked for Harry. We huddled over our dead. I coordinated around with the other toons and brought everyone to the main hall. I briefly ran into Harry and told him we were going to keep fighting. And then a few hours later that son of a bitch came up to the border of the school with Hagrid holding Harry’s body or what we thought was his body."

“I think you know about the next few moments. Or about some of them. I chopped off the head of that damned snake and beat a retreat back. But something important, then, which I don’t repeat much. I had seen Harry move. I saw him get under his cloak and escape. So when I got back to our lines, I told everyone I could. And out of a veil shimmered Nate here, along with Patricia Li, Shira and Ari Stadler, and John Wheating. I told them that Harry was alive, and that Lev and Jess were off fighting Putnam and Sarah off god knew where. Nate scanned the field and held up his fist. I looked up. There were Sarah’s parents, Anand and Raj, aboard a platform of some sort I couldn’t see, Raj sitting at the helm of the kind of machine gun you typically see in a helicopter."

“The Death Eaters were still fighting their way forward, more or less in a real formation, supported by the gunmen Voldermort had drafted up. It had been a bad day to that point, to say the least. But Raj opening fire on the Death Eaters remains the worst thing I have seen in my life. It would have been bad enough to use a regular machine gun. But she had loaded it with bullets that ate away at your body, just like Lev used, and she had accuracy and control that no muggle gunman ever could, with the two of them flying at crazy speeds around and through Death Eater ranks, shooting the entire time. In about a minute, 100 people were dead. When the clip ran out, Patricia walked out among the wounded and sang this horrible song and all the downed Death Eaters were swallowed up by the earth. Churned into meal."

“We went back to the castle. The Stadler-Li crew joined the fight and it pretty much ended right then. We lost a few more but the Death Eaters who had made it to the castle died in scores. Cho had been setting up traps while the rest of us talked to Voldermort and when the Death Eaters came her toon was waiting in choice positions. Some ran for the exits but Lev’s parents were covering the doors. Quick enough it was Bellatrix and Voldermort only, in the center of everything."

“As they were fighting, Sarah walks in. Where her eyes had been, there were two metallic orbs. She was wearing clothes I didn’t recognize. She called out Bellatrix’s name. Bellatrix looked. Molly struck, and Bellatrix fell."

“Then it was just Voldermort against a few of the Professors. Harry intervened. He won. There were scattered survivors on their part, the Malfoys somehow made it out, but the Death Eaters mounted a full-out assault and we repelled them."

“After that, Nate told us that his crew had also emerged victorious and with next to no casualties, that someone had just brute forced the wards away rather than being led in. Overall it was a landslide for our team. And we still don’t know why. Why they tried to attack us all with such clearly inadequate forces."

“Everyone wanted to celebrate and touch Harry and me. I was pretty out of it. My grandma asked people to give me space. Sarah walked around, touching people. I guess Nate, you and your crew decided to wait at the castle to see if Jess and Lev would return there, called some dozen other people to the scene whom I didn’t know. The Stadlers went out and came back with an old man and a little girl, whom I took to be Lev’s grandfather Lucas and sister Gemma. You all looked like you were having important discussions and I didn’t want any part of it."

“Sarah disappeared for a few minutes and I would have missed it but Ginny warned me that she was moving. We tracked her as she went up to the Gryffindor tower. She came down five minutes later with a little brown book I had seen Jess writing in sometimes. She sat down against a wall and started to read."

“A lot of people wanted to talk to her at that point, ask her questions, and she looked at them like they weren’t there. Her parents, I saw them try to ask her questions, and whatever she said back, it made Raj upset, and they rejoined Nate. I got up close, looked at her eyes. I will not be able to tell you precisely what I saw in them. I can’t put words to the ideas. It made me feel very small. She reached her hand out to me and signaled that I sit down next to her. I don’t know why, but I did. Sarah made some gesture I hadn’t seen and then we were shrouded. She whispered to me that she was sorry for everything, for what she had done to us, for what she was going to do to us. I didn’t know what to make of that. I fell asleep. When I woke up Sarah was standing at high alert at the doorway."

“The Elders were the first to return. They were quiet and they waited at the threshold. By that point probably 50 people remained. Patricia and Lucas walked over and stood by Sarah. The Elders bowed to her."

“And the rest of the story …isn’t really mine to tell. Or, I could, but, as long as you’re here, Nate, I think this is yours. I didn’t really understand what happened next anyway. I still don’t."

Nate nodded.

“All right, Neville. I can take it from here."

**Chapter 21**

“As Neville said, our crew only arrived at Hogwarts when we finished facing our own threat. A team of mercenaries. We later figured out it was a distraction, something to keep us pinned down. I used to think it was to keep us away from Voldermort. I am not so sure anymore. I think it might have been one of the supernatural powers, to let Sarah and Harry play out their own destinies. It was their day."

“They razed our camp, but we had ample time to evacuate. We emerged victorious in California some seven hours after the attack had commenced, and made our way to Hogwarts, where Kingsley had told us Voldermort had revealed himself. But before we did, our supervisors in Geneva contacted us and told us that there was a big battle going on in St. Louis, and that their wards had gone off for a time-spell at Hogwarts, and we should go investigate that first."

“So the bulk of our fighting force went to England. When we got there, as Neville said, the fight was about over. We helped speed that along. And then Sarah walks in. She wouldn’t say a word about where she had gone, but we pieced together that she’d faced off against a demigod somewhere else. But it was the eyes that gave it away. I’d heard about them. About artifacts given to humans in special circumstances. We called Lucas in, more schooled in magical lore than the rest of us, and he said she’d probably been abducted and returned by a Leshy. Out of Eastern Europe. Rumored to pay special attention to time-mages."

“We asked Sarah about it. She didn’t say anything. And we told her… this is going to be hard to say. But we told her it would be best if she killed herself right then. I told her that. That Geneva was probably sending in the enforcers against her and all of us right then, as soon as the demons could make the journey. And Sarah said that she would neither confirm nor deny the allegations but that she wasn’t doing anything until she saw Jess and Lev again."

“At that point, we considered just taking her out right then. But Lucas and Patricia gathered us around and said it would be unwise. The eyes link Sarah to the…creature she fought. And that if she called it back, the results might be apocalyptic. So we were stuck. All outcomes looked bad, but Lucas thought we’d have at least ten minutes warning before the demons’ arrival, which was enough time to evacuate everyone if necessary."

“While we were talking this over, Sarah disappeared for a moment, and Ari Stadler followed her. When they came back, Ari looked shell-shocked, and told us that Sarah had just ritually sacrificed the Carrows, whom we all knew on sight, in Ravenclaw tower to a demon in exchange for a necklace. They had been on our kill list, so Sarah had not precisely stepped out of bounds there, but we knew it couldn’t be good."

“We explained the situation to McGonagall and Kingsley, but as we were formulating a plan, the Elders came back. Sarah greeted them at the door, like she had been waiting for them, like they had reached out to her first. Neville called it a bow, but it was more than that; it was an old-world gesture of fealty. We’d heard about wizards who commanded that kind of loyalty among the supernatural forces, but no one alive in our crew had ever seen it happen."

“Patricia and Lucas told everyone to stay where they were and they went and talked to the Elders and Sarah. Then Patricia anounces that Sarah had some things to tell us, and Sarah said that Jess and Lev were about to return with Jordan and Liz, and that the kids would be in bad shape. And that Sarah was going to spend the next few minutes thinking about her options. She said that she’d asked the Elders to stop anyone from interfering with her while she thought about it. So the three of them went over to a wall and sat down. And they murmured to each other in some language I didn’t know. Nobody did anything."

“Sarah told the truth, and probably ten minutes later, Jordan and Liz came to the door, Liz carrying Jess and Lev. Liz was fine. Jordan could hardly walk, looked like a burnt husk. Lev was unconscious and breathing but barely and had been bitten by a vampire. Jess was dead. A quarter of her head was charred and bashed in."

“Sarah greeted them and invited them in, and told the rest of us that Liz and Jordan were with her for the time being. Liz laid the kids out on a dining table and the rest of us circled them in. Ari and Shira Stadler were extremely upset but Patricia warned them to be silent. Sarah asked Liz and Jordan some questions. She asked him about the status of Jonathan Putnam. Jordan said he was alive, bound, and with Liz’s scourge, and they were going to torture him until he revealed the location of all of his horcruxes. She asked him why he was returning with the kids’ bodies rather than the other way around."

“Jordan told us then that the spell Liz came up with to bind Putnam was extremely energy intensive and needed sacrifices to initiate. Jess had agreed to die for it, and Lev had agreed to be turned into a vampire to give Liz what strength he had. They’d long ago consented. And in exchange, they’d bound Liz, Jordan and the Elders to Sarah for twenty four hours for her to sort things out in peace."

Nate paused for a long moment.

“So negligent. We so failed to mind the three of them. I regret …we all do. Not being there. Not seeing what was coming."

“Jordan told us that we’d probably need to run clean-up in St. Louis, Anchorage, Jakarta, Lagos, that a bunch of people had seen them fighting Putnam’s crew and it was all over CNN. At that everyone started shouting at him. John Wheating, my second in command, looked like he was about to bash Jordan’s head in."

“Sarah put her hands up and just said, "stop." And everyone was silent. Neville, you’ve described some moments of your life when you realize how small you are, relative to all the power that’s out there. That was such a moment for me. Sarah, our child, made two dozen people obey her by infusing reality with her will. When she told us to stop, it didn’t seem like a command. It seemed like the only option available. Like water flowing downhill. I looked, after, at her eyes, and saw my life and my loved ones reflected in them, and I was afraid. In the aftermath, people started to reflect on what had just happened, what it meant, and they trembled."

“Except Patricia. She laughed, in her creaky terrifying way. Like you, Neville, I’ve made some efforts to remember that day precisely. I’m going to recite some of what was said verbatim."

Neville was startled when Nate spoke next. The words out of his mouth were, to Neville’s ears, indistinguishable from his memory of Patricia’s voice.

“So many cards to be holding, child. Two ancient beasts, and a great warrior. A weakened enemy, patiently awaiting execution. And a gift from someone many have mistaken for a God. We all know what the Orbs mean. We know what your gift to the demons means that Jess did."

Nate switched back to his regular voice.

“Sarah asked to be left alone to think for a few moments. Liz and the Elders walked away with her and conferred. Liz put her wings around Sarah in a protective gesture. No one approached them. The rest of us talked. Cho and Kingsley joined us then. They said that they’d been in touch with Geneva and MI6 and if Sarah attempted to evade justice, Cho would intervene."

“Soon enough Sarah came over to stand with us. She put her hands in Lev’s hair and said nothing."

“Patricia said: "Sarah, we have been discussing your situation. We all know the stakes we are playing for. Your choices are surrender and die, or resist and maybe live, and maybe consign us all to doom. I am wondering if you are also asking yourself, if you leave, who will come with you.""

“Would you? Would you come with me?"

Nate had once again pulled off what Neville thought was a perfect imitation.

“These are your laws we broke. The spirit who took me showed me many possibilities. She did not show me you coming, Patricia. Why would you even consider it?"

“Oh, you young witches. You always think you are the first to think of starting a new world order in your likeness. It is your mistake to think we made those rules to never be broken. We made them, rather, to not be broken _lightly_. So, dear. Tell me. What was your need? Why did you attempt to undo the natural order of things?"

“To kill Jordan. He was taking my friends. I wanted to make him pay. I was so angry. Nothing else seemed important."

“And were there other things that were important?"

“I do not know. Too many moving parts. The predator showed me some futures in which it was better for Jordan to have lived. And some where it was better for him to have died. I overestimated him. His importance. Liz still would have taken my two away. If I leave today, I’ll leave him behind, not to punish him. But because his part in the drama is over, I think. I…I have not ruled Nate’s solution out. If I do kill myself and Jess for our crimes, I will let the team know. But I think that I would like a little more time to think it over. I have Liz and the Elders at my command for a day. I am going to think things through."

“Ah. This was not a perfect answer. But I think that I shall come with you. I knew a young man like you once. Gellert was dear to me. I was sorry to see him drown in his own ambitions. Perhaps you are the Grindelwald we deserve."

“At that," Nate said, returning to his voice, “Raj moved next to Sarah and stood between her and us. A Hogwarts student, Susan Bones, whose parents I had known distantly, followed. She said to us that she was honoring a promise to Lev. Everyone else was just confused and we all started asking Patricia and Raj what they were doing, what they were possibly thinking. They were silent. Cho pointed her gun at Sarah and said that she was obligated to try to stop them, and Sarah told Cho she appreciated all the help she had given and wished her the best."

“And then they were gone. Just like Neville said. Nothing happened, and then it had already happened. I saw nothing, and then I had a memory of the five women in a circle around the Elders and Lev and Jess forming a translucent sphere, and shooting off directly through the roof. I looked up and sure enough there was a huge hole in the ceiling. Like she had promised, she left Jordan behind, sitting there with the rest of us. I breathed and re-examined the memory. I realized that they had left almost an hour ago. Both timelines were true. It could not be. But it was."

Nate paused again.

“After that, there was not much to do. Lucas left to go deal with the aftermath of the Putnam stuff. The rest of us waited for Geneva to come. When they did, they ascertained that we had been unable to constrain two of our own from violating our most fundamental rules. They told us we’d be put on trial for our negligence. Jordan went to Azkaban. All the fight had gone out of me by then. It was my last day of war."

“And that, I think," he said, “is about all the story that is mine to tell. Albus and Madeleine know this, I’m sure. That we were removed from our position as enforcers over our failure to stop Sarah and Jess from breaking the laws. And that for seven years, no one took our spot. Sarah, we did not hear from. Seven bad years. Wizards asserting themselves everywhere. Perhaps Geneva didn’t understand how much bad behavior we kept in check. Or perhaps they did not care. Until 2005 when Cho was ready to take up the mantle. Then, 25 good years. Peace among the magic folks. And when Sarah re-emerged, the Stadler-Li crew had withered away. Gone into retirement or joined civilian life. So what happened next, what led to the bomb being dropped, I only know by rumor. Albus and Madeleine, if you would not mind, I’d appreciate hearing it from you."

The two of them looked at each other.

“I guess that’s why you brought me along," Madeleine said. “I’ll give it a shot."

**Chapter 22**

“There’s not much more to say," she said. “My mother took seven years to assemble an army. She specialized in magical artifacts that muggles could use, so we could all but entirely pool resources with MI6. Most of the hard work was done before I was born. Flawless, untraceable assassinations of wizards who had taken over various places. My mom never had to take credit for any of it. People just knew. Things got better."

“June 2030. I’m 20. Albus is 24. Mom gets a note from a group of vampires that Sarah wants to meet. Just like you got Neville. She sets up a meeting. Old world accords. Neutral territory. Sarah and her team tell mom that they’ve been thinking about it for thirty years and they think the International Statute of Secrecy is evil. That it holds back life-saving innovations, that wizards should be collaborating with scientists to understand the universe and death. Says she’s going to start undoing it, revealing magic to muggles. Told my mom that her first choice would be team Cho’s support. Second choice would be their non-interference, which she said she’d be willing to pay us for. Third choice was her opposition. Gave mom a month to think about it."

“I was on summer break from uni and training with her and the crew. Mom couldn’t sleep. Total wreck. Told me and Albus and a few others about the offer. She had no idea what the right thing was. She knew that Sarah’s idea was an existential threat, one way or the other, and had no idea who would be standing when the dust cleared. At the end of the day, she decided that her obligations to Britain and the existing order came first, and she had to oppose Sarah. She was crying all the time. Thinking about what it meant for us."

“And we went back to war, Nate. Against the adversary we were always meant to face, I think. Sarah had been laying the groundwork for three decades. Her second cousin was prime minister of India, and she had his full support. A bunch of friendly faces in governments all throughout South America, Southeast Asia. Geneva told us to take them all out. We tried."

Madeleine shook her head.

“Overmatched. Every fucking time. They always seemed to know what we were doing. Well in advance of us. We thought we had spies. But no. Eventually we tried to take out a research facility, just my mom, Albus and me. And they fucking knew we were coming. They can predict everything we do, Nate. It seemed impossible. Eventually we let a random number generator have a large say in our strategy. I wish I were kidding. It helped. But they still seemed to know our entire option set even if we randomized order of operations."

“We lost so many friends and allies. Sometimes we’d see Sarah on the field and then we’d all just be subdued, left dazed and turned around and they’d move their research elsewhere. But every so often we’d face vamps on the field and they were never so restrained. They seemed to delight in it. My sister got bitten and then shot herself immediately in ’33. I was there. As far as I know, we scored zero major victories in five years."

“Two years ago, Sarah got word to us that she thought endgame was at hand and it was time for us to surrender. She said she was going to arrange a hijacking of a U.S. presidential address and reveal magic to everyone simultaneously. And Geneva told her that they wanted to negotiate terms in Karachi."

Madeleine fell silent. Albus wiped at his eyes.

“We had a lot of friends there," Albus said quietly.

“As did we," Nate said. “I was watching negotiations through John Wheating and Ari Stadler’s eyes."

“Do you know," Hannah said. “That the Ministry still maintains it had nothing to do with wizards? That it was a domestic dispute gone nuclear. Hell. We suspected otherwise. But I hadn’t known."

“So," Neville said. “Sarah was there? Was the bomb aimed at her?"

“Yes, she was there, and no, we don’t know who the target was," Albus said. “Could have been her, could have been Geneva, could have been someone else. Probably 100 of the most powerful wizards in one room; a lot of targets. Eight million dead and still we don’t know. It seems likely. But we don’t know for sure."

The table was quiet.

“‘And …what have you been doing since?" Neville asked.

“Playing intermediary for disputes between the supernatural nations," Madeleine said. “Some of the big players, the Goblins, the demons, approached us afterwards. They said that things had gotten out of hand. They suggested that my mom’s crew turn into the medium through which different groups could contest."

“I hadn’t known that," Nate said.

“Do you think they were behind the bomb?" Neville asked.

“As Albus said, we don’t know," Madeleine replied. “But some of the things their envoys said strongly implied that they saw us all as pawns and that they’d had their hands in events that led to Karachi. And that they regretted it, once some unknown player had shown inclination to upend the board."

They were silent again.

“I knew Sarah survived it, though," Albus said.

Everyone turned to look at him.

“If this is a joke, Albus," Nate said, “I’m going to be very upset."

“No," Albus said. “Unfortunately, no. We went on mission for a group of goblins four months ago. We were robbing…not important. But we were in a huge cave system out in Southeast Asia, a few miles deeper than any Muggle has gotten. We were trying to go in undetected, so the team was me, Cho, and two cloaked figures the goblins lent us. They seemed to understand English but didn’t say anything on the descent, dead quiet, great veils, we couldn’t see anything about them, and we didn’t push it. Cho’s policy is that in general, the less we know about the folks who get drafted into coming with us, the better."

“So we got the, uh, thing we were going for. But on the way back up, Cho or I or one of them triggered some kind of failsafe. We’re moving in near total darkness through these dead tight passages, and we get to a little cavern, take a breath, and suddenly behind us, we hear, I think the right word is wailing. Cho recognized it, I think, because she started moving around fast and trying to set up some kind of shield that I didn’t know anything about. And I’ve seen her under serious pressure, under all sorts of fire, but this was probably the only time I’ve ever seen her actually scared, starting to breathe too fast and moving without her usual care."

“Before I could figure out how to help, though, the shorter of the two figures took off her hood, and it was this little Indian woman with a long braid. She said, “Cho, Albus, we’ll take it from here.” And her companion shrugged out of his robe, and he was just, like, this teenager, except with terrible scars on his cheeks, and then wings grew out of his back. He looked right at me and said, “you turned out good-looking. Tell Ginny I say hello.””

“The only word Cho could get out for about 10 seconds was “fuck” but eventually she asked them what they were doing there, and Sarah replied, if I recall, “that’s complicated, but suffice to say that we wouldn’t be here if your mission were anything other than very important. Lev will stay here and I’ll clear the path forward. Let’s get moving.””

“Right then, the first of the attack came, which I remember only as a sense of impending doom and black splotches in the air, and Lev drew a rifle out of nowhere and held the thing one-handed, and put an absurdly big sword in his other, and starts simultaneously slashing and shooting at things I couldn’t see. A few seconds later his wings expanded to fill up the span of our little cavern, and I couldn’t see anything beyond them, and Sarah put a little fireball into her hands and just jumped straight into the stone above our heads and burned a new path out. It had taken us 4 days to make the descent and she got us out in an hour. The entire region has serious anti-disapparition spells on it, so when we got to the surface, Sarah just told us to fly away as high and as far as we could get. I was, you know, looking ahead of us as we did that, so I’m not exactly sure what she did, but there was what I would imagine an earthquake would sound like, just a huge rumbling at the edge of my hearing and stones collapsing. Cho and I got a bit into the stratosphere before we were outside the spell range, and she grabbed me and we went to one of our safe-houses, verified that we weren’t being followed and got home."

“I asked her if those two were who I thought they were, and Cho said yes, and said that I should only tell someone if I didn’t care about that person’s life very much, and that was why I never told you, Madeleine. We went back a few weeks later to the site. Miles of rubble. I’m not sure if it was magic, or if Lev set off a bomb in the base of the cave system. Doesn’t matter. Not too many living things in a complex like that. And that was the last I saw her."

“So, yes. I knew she was alive. I didn’t get a good glimpse or anything. For whatever reason the cave’s collapse never made the English language news. I don’t know the story there. Don’t know the power structures. But the Goblins whisper about it. I think they know what happened."

Madeleine leaned over the table, like she was going to whisper something to Albus, and punched him in the face.

Albus reeled back, his nose bleeding, but soon enough had undone the damage and was sitting as he had been.

“I’m not saying I don’t understand why you did it, though," Madeleine said.

“Point taken," Albus said.

“All right, folks." Nate said. “With all of this information, I’m not sure we’re any closer to understanding why she contacted you, Neville. Why now? Why put everything at hazard?"

“My best guess," Neville said, “is that for some reason, she thinks it’s endgame again. What she said in her message was that there was… an opportunity to undo some of the damage of her song. That could mean either that she’s going to erase events… or she has something she thinks will make it all better. I can’t imagine what. But it was never my strong suit to anticipate her."

“Are you going to say yes then?" Madeleine asked.

**Chapter 23**

Neville looked around the table. He saw an old, favored mentor from childhood, his wife, and the son and daughter of two of his best friends.

“Will you all be there if I say yes?"

“If you’d like, Neville," Nate said.

“I’ll probably be there whether you like it or not," Madeleine said.

Albus nodded.

“Honey. I’ll support you no matter what," Hannah said. “But I wish she had never contacted us. It can only be bad news. If you feel like you must see her …I’ll understand. But I hope you don’t."

“But you’ll be there if I do see her?"

“Yes, Neville. Yes."

“All right then," Neville said. “I’ll tell her next Saturday, this time. Every one of you. Please be here before then. Just you four, please."

Neville’s guests said they would be there and departed. Hannah went to the bathroom and threw up. Neville sat at the table and waited for the morning crowd.

The song we’ll sing over their bones, loved one, he thought.

The land will recall long after we’re gone.

**Chapter 24**

And so it is that a week later, the same five people are sitting at the same table, drinking coffee, waiting.

Sarah is not late. She steps up to the threshold and bows. She is wearing street clothes, a baseball cap and dark glasses. She scans the room.

“Madeleine, I was sorry to hear about Elena. Do you mean me harm?"

“Yes," Madeleine says. “But not today. I’m with Neville. If he offers you safe passage, I’ll respect it."

“Thank you. Neville, may we come in?"

“Who is with you?"

“Claude Delacour, distant cousin of Albus’s by marriage, whom you met two weeks ago, and Elizabeth Anne Loew, whom most of you know. Others are stationed around the alley but won’t enter. May the three of us come inside?"

“Yes."

“Albus," Sarah asks, “would you mind …"

Albus is already moving with his wand out. Directly behind Sarah, Liz Loew and the dapper man who delivered the coin to Neville materialize. To Neville, Liz looks exactly like she did when he last saw her nearly 40 years ago, a middle-aged, petite woman with a blonde bob, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. Albus and Claude perform a variety of wand motions that Neville does not recognize in unison, and then both nod. Sarah and her two enter. Liz remains standing by the door with her arms crossed. Claude and Sarah sit down with Neville. Sarah takes off her glasses.

Neville looks at her, careful not to gaze into her eyes.

[Why the wind?] he sends.

[As soon the stars, the trembling within] Sarah replies.

In unison, they recite:

[What we’ll do when we see them again.

when I find them, friend of mine,

then you will know the state I am in.]

“It’s her," Neville says.

“Thank you, Neville. I wonder now if Jess’s poem does not make more sense now than it did then. Perhaps the “them” is one another rather than our enemies. I am very happy to see you.”

“Aren’t you going to put us through some ID tests?" Madeleine asks.

“Liz already did. Much better to automate the process."

Sarah turns to Nate.

“It is good to see you again, old friend. You look well."

“Yes," Nate says. “Despite everything. I am happy to see you as well."

Hannah gets up to bring over a tray with three cups of coffee; she gives one to Liz at the door, and two to Sarah and Claude, for which the new entrants all say thanks.

“I will start," Sarah says. “We have some time, but not as much as I would like. I’m here to offer you some things. The first is that I will answer any questions you have. I have been keeping secrets my whole life, and I am exhausted of it. I will only leave out information for the sake of time. The second is that I have something material I would like to give you. And the third is that I would like to offer you a choice of possible futures. But let’s begin with questions. I am sure that you have some."

“I do," Neville says. “About the big picture. What was the creature that took you? And where did it take you?"

“The Leshy. She has a name but better to refer to her as generic. And "her" is misleading but she represented to me as female. Ancient demigod, pays attention to humans who try to swim against the stream of time, as I did. Some think she counseled the magicians who made the original time-turners. She took me…not of this realm. Because I was on the verge of altering the rules of reality. Locally, globally, temporally, I don’t know. Neither did she. But that was Harry’s day, and I threatened to alter the flow of his fate. So she removed me from the battle. I was so angry and afraid. After I had lost everything, I felt, I perceived a great doom in that hallway that day, and lost it. It was too much. I am …I am sorry about Tonks."

“You know I considered inviting Edward here."

“Her son?"

“Yeah."

“But you didn’t."

“I thought he might want to take a shot at you, and that you might hurt him."

“Perhaps," she said, “he deserves the opportunity to try. But I appreciate your restraint."

“As to where it took me: there are many realities, Neville. Humans have known this for a long time. Listen to the testimonies of shamans who eat plants that temporarily change the chemistry of their minds. Some of them wandered substantially farther than that. The Leshy is a guide. She took me to a place where I could see more of the pattern of the fabric. Possible paths and pasts that never came to be. We fought, endlessly. Ate together. Watched people, friends and enemies and strangers, from afar, thrive and suffer under different possible timelines. She returned me when… I am not entirely sure why she chose to place me back when she did. In time to answer for my crimes, and for Jess’s, but too late to change Harry’s fate, is my best guess. Why that was important, I don’t know. My truest mentor, my first and most worthy adversary. At some tiny fraction of her total processing power, I think, she set me on my current path. She told me not to be afraid of the possibilities I thought most likely."

Madeleine is shaking.

“You think we’re in a simulation, don’t you," she whispers.

“Ah. Does your mother think so as well?"

“She does. You referred to the Leshy’s processing power. I knew it. I fucking knew it."

“Why do you think that?" Albus asks.

“First, I should say that I view as equally likely the hypotheses that I am insane and imagining everything or that only I exist. But the consequences of my choices in those possible worlds are impossible to discern, so I act as though we are in a simulation, in which case my actions are potentially very consequential, and convergent with those I would take in basement reality."

“It’s about magic, Albus. Magic makes no sense. Everyone else lives by certain all-but-deterministic rules, and we can summon up fire from nothing and fly without physical propulsion? I do not buy it. That reality would have emerged this way. So we have been working instead from hypotheses that start from the premise that there is an author. At first we thought, perhaps there is a God. But then we started subjecting the Elders to tests. Back in the early 2000s. They cooperated. And what we learned about them …is most easily explainable as they are just like us, except they’ve been gifted with more processing power. Which means they’re analogous to faster programs. Both more efficient and more powerful. And then we started wondering if that could be turned into more and more accurate predictive algorithms. It could. I do not know how much computer science or statistics you know, Neville. But the short version is that when we applied the full scope of our available brainpower to the problem of predicting what people around us would do, it turned out that the error term was vanishingly small. And, coupled with some other tests, that led us to place a great deal of our probability mass on the simulation hypothesis."

“That’s how," Madeleine says. She is looking at the table. “That’s how you knew what we were doing before we did."

“Yes, sweetheart," Sarah says. “In the 20th century, a sci-fi writer said that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. What we have learned instead is that a sufficiently accurate predictive algorithm is indistinguishable from God. It was never a fair fight, Madeleine. We tried to limit the casualties as much as possible. But the vampires whom we allied with, who were a necessary part of constructing the algorithms, need to feed on other processing units to continue. It is always brainpower they’re after."

Madeleine says nothing to that.

“Where are Jess and Lev?" Neville asks.

“Lev's with my scourge, Jess is probably in the north Pacific somewhere. The three of us rarely travel together. Jess has been out of combat since Hogwarts. She raised our children. She's been living as an orca, in a pod of them, of late. They know she's an interloper and they just find that curious. She writes music when she's with us. Lev is –"

“We know what Lev does," Albus says quietly. “Half the murders in the Western World get attributed to him."

“I can’t speak to everything that he’s done," Sarah says. “I have only had command of the full forces for about a decade now. But he is not a free agent, Albus. The vampires don’t work like that. If anyone deserves blame for things he’s done, it’s me, and the other humans allied with the scourge. And I would caution you to remember that we see little reason to discourage outsized rumors about our capacity for reprisal."

“So you decided to let them live, after the battle," Neville says.

“Yes. Jess came back quickly once I did a little research into horcrux revival spells. Lev took more time to wake up from Liz’s bite. I, um. I’ve had a lot of opportunities to regret my choice to let him come back. Jess I never worried about. But when Lev was lying there, incapacitated, Liz told me that it was my choice to kill him or not, that no one would intervene. I let him come back. He was awful. For maybe 15 years. The transformation changes a lot of your hormones and cognition. And he was eighteen at the time. In some respects, he was frozen at that stage of development. Angry and mean and cruel. Back then, Patricia was in command of the operation, my regent until the vampires thought me worthy, and she used him in ways I did not approve of. And he loved it. But he’s calmed down over time. He meant what he said back in the caves, Albus. Jess said she was sorry she couldn’t make it."

The table pauses.

“Why did Putnam come out that day?" Neville asks. “Why take that risk? He had to know Jordan and company were after him. Or, really, the whole thing. We were just kids and we wiped the floor with them. Why were our enemies so stupid?"

“These are just guesses," Sarah says, “but I think that Voldermort was actually an idiot and his rise is Britain’s fault for carving out its own set of leaky rules and enforcement mechanisms. When he figured out the three were going after his horcruxes, did he make, you know, _more?_ And hide them somewhere better? No. There is no way to explain keeping Nagini, crucial to his survival, on his person at all times as the actions of an intelligent adversary. Having said that, he was probably the most powerful combat wizard on earth at the time and that has a way of adversely affecting one’s judgment. I would know."

“As to Putnam …this time, I think we were the idiots. Well, Jordan and Lev and Jess specifically. After we captured him, Liz and her subordinates tortured him to insanity and we read all of his memories like a scroll. We saw an unhappy childhood, in terrible places, and a man who raised him, nurtured him, and subjected him to a ritual we’d never seen and don’t understand. We think it affected his beliefs and judgment for his whole life. To what purpose, we don’t know. The poor man. But as toxoplasma causes the rat to stop fearing the cat, we think spell that ruined his life moved him to lure Lev and Jess away and die. And of course they obliged him. And I was too upset to try to reason with them about how implausible his actions were. How comic book villain-esque."

“Sarah," Nate says. “Why did Patricia and Raj go with you that day?"

“What do you know about Patricia’s origins?" Sarah asks.

“I know that Lucas met her a century ago somewhere in Western Asia and that she was already ancient by then. Nothing else. I know that she terrifies me."

“Rightfully so. She was not fully human. Neither was my mother, nor, it turned out, Susan. Somewhere in their lineage, there were spirits. That mix with intelligent creatures. That’s where we think magic comes from, as well as half-breeds like goblins and veela and mermaids. Some wizards are just fewer generations removed from those bloodlines. Patricia’s mother and my mother’s father, were, I think, not of this world."

“I assume you remember what Patricia said at Hogwarts. She never spoke much about her designs. But her actions were most consistent with seeking to guide humans who wanted to …undo our institutions. Question the architecture. Which is what we’ve been doing. She’s moved on now. But I think they thought I was perhaps capable of doing so. I may be. I continue working at it in their memories."

“So your mother did not make it out of Karachi, then," Nate says. “I am sorry to hear that."

“Thank you, Nate."

“How did _you_ survive, Sarah?" Neville asks. “You must be the only human in history to survive a direct hit from a hydrogen bomb."

“My …my mother shielded me."

“And no one else?"

Sarah looks down at the table.

“Oh my god," Hannah breathes.

“Maybe she couldn’t save anyone else," Sarah whispers. “I don’t know."

Sarah looks up.

“If it had just been a bomb, I could have shielded everyone or stopped time and redirected it. The attack came across multiple dimensions. Someone had warded against me specifically. My ability to alter the flow. I was constrained and helpless as I started to watch fire envelop everything. My dad and everyone else. And my mom paused reality and …she told me about my heritage. She told me to trust the Leshy’s advice and to trust my beliefs about why I was on Earth. She called my mantle “version control.” She evaporated with everyone else. I stumbled out of the wreckage."

Sarah looks directly at Neville. He looks into her eyes and sees stars.

"And you can't go back in time and, you know, _fix it_?" Madeleine asks.

"No, I'm afraid not. I summoned the Leshy right after and asked her that same question. Apocalpyse, she said. She'd done her own research into it and she told me that the attacker has, I don't know how to put this except to say 'admin privileges' that we don't, and we need to know more before we try to undo things. We're working on it now, meaning, hunting down and interrogating people we suspect of collaboration, capitulation. And what we learned there..."

Sarah pauses.

"You wouldn’t believe, Neville – well, perhaps you would – how many wizards have, in their lives, abducted, enchanted and acted out their fantasies with Muggles, and then erased their memories of it. I think from their point of view it's like nothing ever happened. But trauma lingers. We still haven't found anyone who communicated directly with the attacker. We found a few who had foreknowledge in some way. Some killed themselves as we closed in. A few remain at large. Anyone innocent, we returned to their homes and compensated them. But that was far fewer people than you might wish to believe."

“In fact, another candidate will be attempting to join us shortly. In about five minutes, I think. Hannah called Geneva and told them I was coming and they’re sending, among others, a man we’ve been meaning to get our hands on. That’s going to have to be the end of our conversation."

Hannah starts breathing hysterically and drops her mug, which Sarah intercepts mid-flight and places on the table. She gazes at Hannah.

“No, we’re not going to punish you for it. Yes, we’ve been tracking all of you and your communications since we first made contact. Claude set that up when he visited two weeks ago. Though honestly, Hannah, it was very poor form to undermine your husband like that."

Neville’s face is slack in shock. Nate watches passively. Albus glances around the room rapidly. Madeleine stands up and withdraws a machete from an unseen belt loop and makes to slash at the air.

“Please stop," Sarah says. “We’re going to apprehend the man before he gets inside. That’s why I have supporters in the alley and around the building. There is no enchantment here for you to undo, Madeleine. We still have time to talk."

Claude smiles and murmurs something Neville can’t hear.

“Oh shut up," Sarah says to him. “Listen. Everyone. I have some things to offer you if you have no more questions. Will you hear me out?"

No one says anything. Madeleine sits down again and stares at Hannah.

Neville is dizzy from the betrayal. Not because Hannah had thought her loyalties to law and order superseded her obligations to Neville. But because of her arrogance. Had she not listened to Madeleine’s descriptions of being routinely overmatched? Sarah looks at him.

“I’m sorry we used you all," she said. “But Neville. Please. Events are already in motion. Before I go I’d like to give you the things I came with. I ask you as a friend."

Neville nods.

“All right then. First, this –" Sarah pulls out a folded piece of paper – “is our version of the story of our year at Hogwarts together. I compiled Lev’s recollections, and some of Jess’s diary entries. A brief interlude from my mother. I want you to have it. If you touch it to the Protean coin we forged, it will expand. Only you will be able to read it at first. When you’re done, you can share it with others if you’d like."

Sarah slides the paper across the table. Neville accepts and pockets it.

“Thank you. And the second thing is an invitation."

She addresses the entire table.

“Everyone, we are leaving. Earth. I’m inviting you all to come with us. Yes, you too, Hannah. We’re extending the offer to everyone in the old crowd. Most will say no. Seamus and Susan and Padma and Parvati are coming, and their families."

“Neville, I hate it here. On Earth. I just wanted to write. I just wanted my friends to be safe. I’ve been fighting my whole life. I’m goddamn sick of it. I’ve killed, so many people. Or watched a million others die. We have magic. We could make everyone live forever. It’s so stupid."

“We think we can never be safe here. The forces that oppose us have so many tools at their disposal. And …we want to start getting to the bottom of things. That’s going to mean conducting some potentially very dangerous experiments on the fabric. We want to be very far away from the bulk of sentient life as we know it when we do."

“Someone has been moving the pieces. Someone wrote the code that configures our lives, we think. We sometimes think we see the author’s signature. Little jokes. The only two werewolves anyone remembers were named ‘Fenrir’ and ‘Lupin’. It’s not funny to me, Neville. It’s our fucking lives. We have some questions we want to ask. About suffering and variability and incompatibility."

“I do not plan to say precisely what our plan is. But if any of you wants to get in touch, I don’t think it will be hard. I’d love to have each of you."

Liz whistles.

“That’s our cue to go," Sarah says.“Goodbye, friends."

No one says anything as Sarah, Claude and Liz depart. Claude bows on his way out.

Madeleine tells Nate and Albus that it would be best if they were miles away from the scene ASAP, and the three of them leave soon after.

Neville and Hannah are still sitting at the same table in silence fifteen minutes later as delegates from the Ministry of Magic burst through the door shouting. They lead Neville away in handcuffs and Hannah cries.

**Chapter 25**

Neville is awaiting trial in Azkaban for offering material support to a designated terrorist organization when Sarah visits again, appearing directly in his mind.

[Do you want my assistance in getting out of here?]

[No, thank you.]

[Ok.] Sarah sounds sad to him.

[Goodbye then.]

[Sarah?]

[Yes Neville?]

[Do you regret it all?]

[Every day, Neville. I wish I could have…but it’s a fantasy. There were only competing apocalypses to choose between. My choices were to be atop the wave or washed away. But, yes. I sometimes wish we could have been washed away together.]

[Goodbye then.]


End file.
